Hudson Depot Lofts struggling

Hudson Depot Lofts opened in Hudson, New York, with 64 new apartments and a pitch that mixed polished marketing with “workforce housing” rules, but by April 2026 one local report said the building was still nearly 75 percent vacant 11 months after opening. A second local account from the Hudson Industrial Development Agency meeting said the 12 lower-income apartments leased quickly while the other 52 did not. (dailygazette.com) (gossipsofrivertown.blogspot.com) The project sits at 76 North Seventh Street in Hudson’s Depot District, a former industrial area a few blocks from Warren Street that developers have been trying to remake into a residential neighborhood. CoStar described the building as a 2025 addition to that makeover and said it brought 64 mixed-income apartments plus commercial space to the district. (costar.com) (hudsondepotlofts.com) The catch was in the rules attached to the tax break. In 2021, the Hudson Industrial Development Agency approved a payment in lieu of taxes deal on the understanding that all 64 units would go to households capped at either 80 percent or 130 percent of area median income, with only 12 units in the lower band and 52 in the higher one. (gossipsofrivertown.blogspot.com 1) (gossipsofrivertown.blogspot.com 2) That sounds broad until you compare it with the rents. At the April 2026 agency meeting, Administrative Director Mike Tucker said the 130 percent of area median income units started at $2,275 for a one-bedroom, $2,775 for a two-bedroom, and $3,400 for a three-bedroom, while Council Majority Leader Margaret Morris had already argued in July 2025 that those numbers did not line up cleanly with what many capped households could actually afford. (gossipsofrivertown.blogspot.com 1) (gossipsofrivertown.blogspot.com 2) Tucker’s explanation was blunt: credit requirements and income caps together created “a very small band of eligibility.” It is the apartment-market version of setting a door that only people between two exact heights can walk through. (gossipsofrivertown.blogspot.com) The public-facing marketing pointed in a different direction. The building’s own website sold “modern living” near fine dining, cafés, boutique shopping, and cultural attractions, while a Trulia listing advertised a one-month free-rent special and only added, near the bottom, that “Income and Sole Residence Preferences Apply.” (hudsondepotlofts.com) (trulia.com) That mismatch had been visible early. At the July 2025 agency meeting, Morris said the website did not clearly indicate the building had income limits at all, even though the tax deal depended on those limits being central to who could rent there. (gossipsofrivertown.blogspot.com) The ownership side got more complicated in the middle of lease-up. Bard College announced on July 7, 2025, that it would become steward of the Galvan Foundation’s Hudson and Columbia County real estate portfolio, and Bard later said the transfer included mixed-income housing properties. (bard.edu) By April 2026, the closing had not yet happened, but the Hudson Industrial Development Agency was told Bard was already managing Hudson Depot Lofts and had hired a leasing company. Tucker said the tax agreement does allow renting above the 130 percent cap if eligible tenants cannot be found, but he also said Bard wanted to preserve the income limits and might instead lower rents. (gossipsofrivertown.blogspot.com) The strangest part is that the same building won a 2026 CoStar Impact Award as Albany’s multifamily development of the year. CoStar praised the project for adding 64 mixed-income apartments and 27 family-size two- and three-bedroom units, which shows how a project can look like a civic win on paper and still struggle when the leasing math meets the tenant pool. (costar.com) By April 2026, apartment sites were still showing large blocks of availability, with Trulia listing 32 one-bedrooms, 12 two-bedrooms, and 3 three-bedrooms available, and ApartmentHomeLiving showing prices from $2,000 to $3,600. For Hudson Depot Lofts, the hard part was not pouring concrete or designing floor plans; it was finding enough renters who fit both the spreadsheet and the screening rules. (trulia.com) (apartmenthomeliving.com)